Mainland immigration authorities on Thursday said the country saw a total of more than 141 million inbound and outbound trips in the first quarter of this year, up 117 percent from the same period last year.

Nearly 60 million of the trips were made by residents of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, up 100 percent year-on-year. Thirteen million trips were made by foreign nationals, which was triple the number last year.

The National Immigration Administration (NIA) noted that a number of measures were introduced to boost cross-border travel in the first three months of the year, including visa-free entry policies with some foreign countries, as well as the individual visit scheme for residents of Qingdao and Xi’an to travel to Hong Kong and Macau.

It said it granted 1.98 million foreign travellers visa-free entry during the period, up over 260 percent year-on-year.

NIA spokesperson Lin Yongsheng said the trend of residents of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan heading to the mainland is continuing, as is the trend of mainlanders heading to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Such traffic has resumed to the level seen in 2019, Lin said, with record breaking daily cross-border trips made at various ports in Hong Kong. (Additional reporting by Xinhua)